So, just in time for CES, Nikon announced the D5500, successor to the D5300. The D5300 was Nikon’s only DSLR that had GPS built-in. Its successor, however, no longer does. It seems the function was either not popular enough, or did not work as well as it was supposed to. My guess/experience: Both! (The worst was the battery drain). As usual, you can read the details on dpreview.com or engadget.com

At CES, I went over to the Nikon booth, to test our Unleashed on the D5500 there. Luckily, one of the guys there was curious enough himself to let me test it – even though they were just prototypes, and he wasn’t supposed to let me.

The good news: the Unleashed Dx000 works on the D5500 (see the GPS Satellite icon)

The bad news: I was unable to properly test how well it fits the D5500, but can tell you it’ll be tight! It would have been necessary to remove the rubber flap to insert the Unleashed Dx000 completeley, and of course was not going to do that on Nikon’s prototype. The socket is a little more recessed than on other cameras, so I cannot yet promise that the Unleashed can be plugged in all the way, and therefore get enough contact to work properly. I will update this post when I know more – if you’ve tested it, let us know in the comments!

I just saw the Nikon D4s at CES, and it looks pretty much identical to the D4, just looking at the body. While I’m sure they’ve greatly improved it on the inside, the good news is that the 10-pin port is still there, and I assume it will work just as it did with the D4, meaning that our Unleashed D200+ will fit and work on the D4s.

I was able to test it today, and can confirm it works just as well as on all other Nikon DSLRs. One thing I might note: Although the Unleashed D200+ does fit, and works well – the D800 modification makes it fit even better.

Nikon announced the D3300 a few days ago – a great entry level DSLR, I’m sure! As usual, I won’t bore you with the specs and features – you can read these on nikon.com or dpreview.com.

Being at the CES 2014, I was able to have a look at the camera, and to test the Unleashed Dx000 on the D3300. Unlike the D5300 – the D3300 does NOT have GPS built-in. It’s still compatible with the Nikon GP-1 and other third party GPS devices. Unfortunately, the Unleashed Dx000 will not physically fit the D3300, because the socket is recessed a little too deeply for the Unleashed Dx000 to plug in completely.

Nikon finally did it! They added built-in GPS to the D5300 they announced today. Also Wi-Fi. So, the first Nikon DSLR with integrated GPS is an entry-level DSLR, just as I expected. Lets see how long it will take for this feature to find its way into the Pro DSLRs. Considering the D610 that was announced just a few days ago does not have GPS yet, I’d bet it will still take a while. First we’ll have to see how well the geotagging works, what its effect on battery life will be, and how many customers this new feature will win over…

Until then, of course we’ll still have the next best thing to built-in GPS (if not an even better thing!), for all other more or less current Nikon DSLRs, from the D3100 all the way up to the D4, our great wireless (Bluetooth) direct geotagging solution that does not add any bulk to the camera: the Unleashed!

The Antenna seems to be placed to the right of the mode dial on the top of the camera – a better choice, slightly further from the internal flash!

The D5300 uses A-GPS (Assisted GPS), and Nikon provides current A-GPS files on their website: http://nikonimglib.com/agps2/. You can download A-GPS data for 28 days, but can only load 7 days at a time into the camera, so you’ll have to reload it every 7 days. It also allows tracking/logging, with an interval of 15, 30 or 60 seconds, for up to 24 hours (12h and 6h also selectable). The track-logs are stored on the SD card, but I do not yet know in what format Nikon will store it. We’ll find out soon enough. I’m looking forward to the first reviews! See details about the GPS feature here. One thing I’m particularily interested in, is whether it’s possible to optionally use an external GPS solution such as our Unleashed instead of the built-in one, the Specifications on the Nikon imaging website do list “GPS units: GP-1/GP-1A (available separately)” under “Accessory Terminal”, so it does look like it’ll be possible!

Today, Nikon announced the new D7100. A successor to the popular D7000, now 2.5 years old.

Some also rumor it to be the merged successor of the D7000 and D300s, and the updated specs do seem to lend these rumors some credibility. One example is that the D7100’s AF module has been updated to the Multi-Cam 3500DX with 51 AF points (15 cross type), which is the same as the as the D300s. However, it even comes with updated Algorithms, and just like the D4, D800 and D600, Nikon specifies it to be able to focus in low light, down to -2EV. The center point is functional at f/8, an advantage especially for the use of teleconverters combined with telephoto lenses. Of course that’s not all thats new, some important updates are the 24Megapixel Sensor without optical low pass filter, ISO range of 100-6400 (or Lo-1:50 to Hi-2: 25600), increased speed, 1080/30p video recording, dedicated movie record button, 1.3x crop mode, ca 100% frame coverage viewfinder, and much more, which you can read about in detail on nikon.com, dpreview or engadget.

The most interesting news is of course, that the D7100 is compatible with our Unleashed Dx000, as the connector and its position at the bottom right of the left side of the camera remains mostly unchanged from the D7000. Nikon has still not built in GPS into any of their DSLRs!

So, last week, Nikon announced another great consumer DSLR, the D5200. Nikon updated their only DSLR model with a swivelling Display to specifications close to the D7000, while remaining physically almost identical to the predecessor: the D5100.

The Nikon D5200 is compatible with our Unleashed Dx000, Nikon really seems to be sticking with this port for GPS support in their consumer DSLR lineup, and is showing no signs of integrating GPS into their DSLRs just yet.

Again, just like with the D600, the Rubber cover needs to be either removed or a have rectangular hole cut into for the Unleashed to fit on properly, but most our customers do this anyway, so that the rubber cover is not flapping about all the time. See our D600 post for details on a nearly entirely reversible method for removing the flap.

Today, Nikon announced another full-frame DSLR, the D600. Read the reviews on dpreview, engadget or elsewhere.

Of course Nikon added GPS support, again it’s not integrated, but via an external Module, such as their GP-1 and of course our Unleashed. According to Nikon, the D600 fits in right below the D800 and is just as much a Pro DSLR as the latter. Rumor had it, that this was going to be the first consumer DSLR with an Fx sensor, and there was much evidence to back this. One example is that the D600 does not have the “pro” 10-pin port on the front of the camera, which would have fit our Unleashed D200+. Instead, it is equipped with the port found on all the consumer DSLRs, on the side of the camera, making our Unleashed Dx000 compatible with the D600.

In a couple of days, we’ll be at photokina, and will try the D600 with our Unleashed, just to verify it works, and get you some pics of how it looks.

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